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Posts Tagged ‘Floor Jansen’

Iced Earth

with Sabaton and Revamp

ICED EARTH Announce North American tour with SABATON and REVAMP!

Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto, Canada
April 14th, 2014

by EvilG

It’s not often that a single concert has THREE touring bands on the bill that I all want to see. Typically, there’s the headliner, and local openers that can be hit or miss. However, for this tour we have the mighty Iced Earth with support from Sabaton, and Revamp featuring Floor Jansen of Nightwish. Their tour stop in Toronto on Monday April 14th, was a show worth making the 2000+ kilometre trek from the ends of the earth to Toronto to witness.

TIMO TOLKKI’S AVALON to release sophomore album “Angels of the Apocalypse” with an amazing cast of singers ! Out in May on Frontiers

Frontiers Records is excited to announce the release of TIMO TOLKKI’S AVALON sophomore album, “Angels of the Apocalypse” on May 16th in Europe and May 20th in North America.

Following the release of the debut album “The Land of New Hope”, the “Metal Opera” was met with critical and fan acclaim, entering the national album charts in seven European countries, including a top 10 entry in Tolkki’s home country, Finland. In August 2013, Tolkki flew to Greece to seek the right inspiration for the follow-up album and upon his return he managed to develop a sound that is even more grandiose and symphonic and yet heavier and darker in direction as compared to the debut album. “In August 2012 I planned to release a Metal Opera that had to be a trilogy. I am following a specific storyboard in a musical format and this time the musical direction is heavier and darker than the previous Avalon” says Tolkki. ”This was deliberate since the Apocalyptic scenes described in the lyrics demanded that”.

As for the players on the album, Tolkki finally managed to reunite the legendary STRATOVARIUS “Dreamspace” lineup, calling Antti Ikonen and Tuomo Lassila to play keyboards and drums respectively. “It was really nice and brought good vibes and freshness to the album,” tells Timo. “Definitely the right move.”

The amazing cast of vocalists appearing this time includes NIGHTWISH singer Floor Jansen – who takes care of the lead vocals on the first single “Design The Century” – along with Simone Simons (EPICA), Fabio Lione (RHAPSODY OF FIRE), David DeFeis (VIRGIN STEELE), Zachary Stevens (ex-SAVATAGE, CIRCLE II CIRCLE), plus Elize Ryd (AMARANTHE) – who appears again after contributing to the first album – and the stunning Chilean singer Caterina Nix, who is working on her debut album which is also produced by Tolkki. “Some songs were written with a specific singer in mind, while for some others I decided based on the knowledge that I had on how he or she would perform. I am particularly happy of how this record sounds especially two songs You’ll Bleed Forever and the 10 minute title track are among my favourite ever”, says Tolkki.

Once again the stunning artwork is provided by the French artist Stanis W. Decker and the first pressing of the physical edition will be available in a glossy digipak.

The Nightwish/ReVamp singer Floor Jansen will appear in the leading role on the next album of Timo Tolkki’s Avalon Metal Opera.

Jansen is the main vocalist on the album and sings lead vocals on the first single and promotional video. The release date for both single and the video is planned for March. The recordings are currently taking place in East Sound Studios in Helsinki, Finland. Jansen joins the cast that already includes Epica singer Simone Simons and the reunion of the early Stratovarius. Lineup: Tuomo Lassila on drums (the founder of Stratovarius) and Antti Ikonen on keyboards (the original keyboard player of Stratovarius).

A European Tour is also planned for May 2014, to coincide with the release of the album. More details on the live lineup and dates will be revealed later.

Timo Tolkki comments straight from the studio: “I am right now recording probably the best vocalist I have worked with in my whole career. This has been a jaw dropping experience and I thought I have already seen it all. Floor has proven me wrong. For example in the 10 minute title track of the album, she delivers in my opinion the best vocals of her career so far. This song is probably the biggest sounding of my whole career and Floor simply makes it an astonishing, almost breathtaking experience! We are both surprised of how amazing this has turned out to be and both very happy to hear how amazing it sounds.”

INTERVIEW WITH FLOOR JANSEN

BY ARTO LEHTINEN AND MARKO SYRJÄLÄFLOOR AND REVAMP PICTURES BY MARKO SYRJÄLÄ

Floor Jansen is a well known name amongst Nightwish fans as the Dutch vocalist took over vocal duties on the Nightwish US tour and has been fronting them since then, and is now an official fulltime official member. Floor Jansen’s own band ReVamp recently made the visit to Finland, supporting Kamelot on the European tour. Metal-Rules.com had the pleasure to talk to Floor Jansen about the recent ReVamp album WILD CARD and of course Nightwish and her other musical adventures. Read on !

Floor Jansen is the vocalist for the Dutch melodic metal band, After Forever. Floor’s emotional vocals are something you not only hear, but feel, especially on the band’s newest self-titled album where the band has outdone themselves. In this interview we talk to Floor about the music on the band’s latest album, the deeply personal nature of some of the lyrics on the album, and a range of other relevant topics.< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />